The present invention relates to refrigerant compressors, and more particularly to associated suction accumulators.
Suction accumulators are well known in the refrigeration art and are provided in refrigeration systems to prevent liquid refrigerant from entering the compressor cylinder and thereby cause slugging within the compressor. This slugging condition may occur at startup of the refrigeration system or during certain operating conditions of the system wherein the evaporator is flooded and excess liquid refrigerant enters the suction line to the compressor. Such accumulators act as storage reservoirs for liquid refrigerant.
If the compressor is operated with a large quantity of liquid present therein, abnormally high pressure results which frequently causes blown gaskets or damaged valves. Suction accumulators are constructed to cause the stored liquid refrigerant to flash off into a gaseous state prior to entering the compressor suction tube and the compressor cylinder, thus reducing the internal pressure.
Prior art suction accumulators, such as the one shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,827,725, having internal tubing fixedly attached to both endwalls, have a disadvantage in that the tubing tends to transmit compressor vibrations through the accumulator housing instead of damping them.
Additionally, it has been found that previous suction accumulators have had an endwall thickness that was relatively thin in order to use a minimum of materials. The problem with this construction is that noise generated by the operation of the compressor tends to be amplified by this bottom portion of the accumulator, which acts similarly to a drum skin, that resonates at the noise pulse frequency of the compressor.
It is therefore desired to provide an accumulator which attenuates rather than amplifies the noise generated by the compressor.